Nationals name Martin Corboy as candidate

By
Blair Thomson

Nationals name Martin Corboy as candidate

A FORMER Bendigo resident has been selected as a Nationals Senate candidate for Victoria.

Martin Corboy spent about seven years in Bendigo from age 14, and will fill the fourth spot on the Coalition Senate ticket.

The former Maldon Football Club player and current Wangaratta resident said he wanted to grow regional areas if elected, which he said would be tough from his position on the ticket.

“At any one time there’s 11 per cent of Melbourne residents, about 400,000 people, who want to move to the regions,” he said.

“If we have the support and industries in place, those people can relieve pressure on city living and take their industry and families to those regional areas and grow this country.

“We’re too city centric.

“We need to expand the regions, make them profitable, make them family friendly and work hard to that end.

“We’ve got a lot of potential and we should exploit that to make us the best country to live in on the face of the planet.”

Mr Corboy said Wangaratta could learn from the successes of Bendigo.

“I think we can learn a lot from their infrastructure,” he said.

“Places like Wangaratta could support themselves at the size of Bendigo.

“There should be 15 such regional cities around the state.

The father of five said he had been a member of the Nationals for four-and-a-half years and said he chose to stand for election when the position arose.

“I was a Family First candidate in 2006 in the state electorate of Benambra,” he said. “I seriously considered standing for Wangaratta Council but decided not to.

“It will be difficult for me to win from the number four spot, but I’m very focussed on getting the Coalition elected in September and I’ll be supporting all the National and Liberal Party members throughout the state.”